Administrative Inequality: Conceptualization and Micro-Mechanisms

Éditeurs invités

• Steffen Eckhard, Leibniz University Hannover
• Eva Thomann, University of Konstanz
• Gabriela Lotta, Fundação Getulio Vargas
• Sharon Gilad, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Synthèse

This special issue addresses how public administrations produce inequality through organizational routines and administrative decisions. Research on unequal citizen treatment has historically developed in isolated subfields, creating conceptual fragmentation. The special issue proposes administrative inequality as a unifying framework integrating these literatures around the shared principle of equal opportunity of access to public services and entitlements.

Administrative inequality encompasses any administrative rule, process, or behavior—intentional or unintentional—that systematically impedes citizens' equal opportunity to access public services. The concept anchors equality in access and examines how formal rules, organizational routines, and street-level behavior jointly produce unequal outcomes across diverse governance contexts.

Extrait. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur.

Thèmes proposés

• Administrative inequality
• Equal opportunity and access to public services
• Street-level bureaucratic discretion
• Representative bureaucracy
• Bureaucratic discrimination
• Administrative burden
• Social equity in public administration
• Public sector corruption
• Automated decision-making and algorithms
• Organizational routines and procedures
• Eligibility checks and communication routines
• Digital governance
• Administrative behavior and citizen treatment
• Comparative analysis across governance contexts
• Informal institutions and administrative processes